stop making sense

Mayan Calendar Suffered From Budget Approvals

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 08:18:00 +0000

Producing the Long Count calendar was no easy feat

Have a nice day!

So here it is people. The real reason so many of us believe our number is up today, December 21, 2012. The date that the Mayan Long Count (Baktun) calendar expires. Are you ready? Answer: They didn't get the funds granted before being conquered by the Spanish.

Seriously. The Mayan Calendar was based on a cyclical count. The longest cycle was 1,872,000 days (or 5125.36 years). That cycle ends today. Now this wasn't in the day when you could walk down to Kinkos and print out 15 million copies of the 5125 year calendar to distribute to all of your Mayan friends. No, indeed. The ancient Mayan calendars we have on record are carved in stone! Think about that. I'll write it again in all-caps for effect. CARVED IN STONE! On the sides of temples. On walls in palaces. You get the picture? Not a cheap undertaking by any means.

Documenting the next Baktun calendar would have required an enormous budget from the Mayan King. A project including armies of stone masons, stone, new buildings to carve them into, iron tools for carving and time. Yes, TIME. Lots and lots of time. And, well... the Mayans thought they had at least a few hundred years left before they needed to start chiseling away in the rock and stone and create the next calendar. But, in that same time period, their armies of men and resources were needed to fight the Spanish. A fight they eventually lost and which subsequently left them adopting (or being forced to adopt) their conqueror's religion and therein, their calendar.

When your peoples are conquered and enslaved your culture typically takes an historical hit with regard to accounting and record-keeping. The fact that no new Baktun or Long Count Calendar was ever created is far from being proof that the world will end today. Imagine if nobody produced the new 2013 Victoria's Secret, Sports Illustrated, Hot Fireman, Warm Puppies or Cute Cats calendars this year. What a panic! No 2013 calendar? Must be the end of the world! Not likely.

It's 9:00 AM here as I write. In 15 hours we'll know for sure. Have a nice day!

Super Kent the Service Guy! To the rescue!

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:22:00 +0000

Hey, Bud! You need a door to go with this refrigerator!

How many times has this happened to you? An appliance breaks, you call the service line, and a service technician is booked to arrive "sometime between 8 and 12", only to show up just after lunch around 1 o'clock, and missing the part needed to finish the repair. Sound all too familiar? Well, that's why I feel compelled to share my very non-cliché experience yesterday with Super Kent the Service Guy.

Here's the back-story. The hinge on the door to my pricey, two years old, stainless fridge had gone bad. The bushing on the bottom, which rides on the hinge and handles the balance of the door so that it closes by itself, had come loose. It seems that this little silicon piece screws directly into the plastic frame on the underside of the door. Over time, a stress fracture had appeared in the plastic and the result is that the door would bind when you open or close it, giving a great THUMP! Not healthy for either the door or the hinge. Having gone online and finding the explosion diagram (the picture that shows you all of the parts and numbers) it was evident that there was no replacing the plastic frame and that a new door would be required - to the tune of €400!!!

I was ready for a fight. Phrases like, "design flaw", "factory reject", and "consumer rights", all danced in my head. So, like any good customer, I rang up the service number and booked a time for a tech to come and "have a look at the door". He would be by on Tuesday "between 8 and 12". So, here's the good part. I'm home yesterday afternoon (Monday) working in my home office, when the phone rings. It's Kent, the service tech. He's in the area and wonders if he could come by a day early and have a look at the door. "Sure", I say. "Come on by. I'm here till four". "Ten minutes", says Kent.

Nine minutes later Kent the service guy is at my door. After accepting a cup of coffee he begins to evaluate my busted hinge (on the door). After Kent quickly and deftly lifts out the door inserts without spilling a drop of milk or dropping an egg, he draws his power-drive and unscrews the door from the hinge. With several small bits of black plastic tumbling onto the floor we concur that the plastic is indeed cracked and that the only solution is a new door. "They're pretty expensive", Kent informs me. Duh! So what next?

Before I could even start to wind up all of my complaints Kent says, "I have a new one out in the truck." and off he goes. Ten minutes later there's a new door hanging, Kent has cleaned up, and we're drinking a quick cup of coffee. "Is that under guarantee?" I ask. "Yeah, no worries." says Kent. (note to self: close mouth) I signed the service order with great big THANKS! at the bottom.

So there we stand, sipping coffee, talking about all the hi-tech kit going into household appliances like LCD touch screens and M2M communications that let you control your fridge from your mobile phone. It's apparently hard for Super Kent and his colleagues to keep up on everything. It's not about just changing a hose or a water pump any longer; soon these service reps will need to be network technicians as well. They do their best, however and sometimes - even a day early. We wrapped up our chat and Kent was on his way to a family of seven that needed their washing machine fixed. He was of course a day ahead of schedule and had a new machine in the truck.

I haven't named the manufacturer, and that is with reason. I wanted to first and foremost give recognition and credit to Super Kent who saved my day in so many ways. It's the people that are in the trenches and meet the customer every day that build the brand. They are the reputation. They are the growth in a saturated market. I know exactly which brand I will be buying when I need to replace the dryer in a few months. Super Kent the Service Guy should get a commission.

What's next, Burger King? The Liver Smoothie?

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:31:00 +0000

Burger King topping off summer with Bacon Sundae

I don't know if this post will be informational, infotational or just incomprehensible, but I feel compelled to write something, anything!

Yesterday I was sliding my finger thru the pages of Flipboard and came across a story that made me turn around and quickly check the calendar to be sure it wasn't April 1st again. Burger King had been revamping it's menu and came up with lots of pork and chicken sandwich offerings as a limited-time summer campaign. One can only hope. But what blew my mind was the addition to their snack/desserts of this odd little treat - the Bacon Sundae.

I'm speechless, nearly. Seriously. Toppings to choose from? Caramel, Strawberry, Fudge, OREO®, M&M'S®, and... BACON! Why not just pour some pork fat right over the top instead? It makes me think of that scene from the Friends episode "The One Where No One's Ready" (season 3 ep.2), where Joey inadvertently drinks Monica's saved glass of fat. Later, when Ross needs to drink the fat in order to prove to Rachel how much he needs her, he mumbles a to himself, "Just a vanilla milkshake...". It doesn't change the fact that the entire audience groans with disgust as David Schwimmer raises the glass too his lips.

Call me old-fashioned but my bacon is reserved for eggs, beans, and BLT's. And while I've seen lots of flavors of ice-cream, including this wonderful, blue pick-me-upper in Rome, you'd have to push me real hard to try a bacon sundae.

now this is ice cram that lasts

One re-release that lives up to the memories

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:12:00 +0000

Paul McCartney, Ram (Remastered) 1971

It's happened to all of us. You know. You were siting around reminiscing with some friends about the "good old days" and all of your musical references started bubbling up. Names of deep tracks start popping up by artists so far out the long tail that the friends around you glaze over with dismay as the signals spark across synapsis in their grey matter triggering wide-eyed "a-ha" moments. Tracks once loved and forgotten and which, after a few more beers, you realized you just had to have again. The next morning you logged onto iTunes or other dubious music download source and downloaded that long-lost gem by Shawn Phillips. Crow, Moxy, Bread, whomever, only to be royally disappointed when your memory far exceeded reality. "What was I thinking?" "How could I have ever been so into this?"

It's so easy to be disappointed by our memories. This is why I was pleasantly surprised with the new re-release of Paul McCartney's 1971 co-creation "Ram". It was McCartney's second solo effort after The Beatles had officially disbanded and one that was produced with his wife Linda (who shares writing credits and performs backing vocals on most tracks). McCartney has just released the re-master of this album and will continue with more to come. The point was to re-master them for the digital age and digital distribution. I don't know if that's a good thing necessarily, but in this case I can only say that the effect is pure magic to my ears - and my memory.

From the very first strumming chords of that acoustic guitar on , "Too Many People", I'm hooked.
There are elements here that I never heard before in early days. This is recording technology still evolving into the era of multi-track. McCartney had plenty of time and dough to spend in the studio paying attention to the small details. Simple yet intricate. Single note instrumentation layered together with voice in a symphony of rock-n-roll tones that become a thriving, pulsing, party.

You can hear the George Martin influence lingering in the way the songs are worked into their final versions. They even sound like the typical Lennon/McCartney collaborations made up of two separate songs with two separate sounds becoming one. Listen to the silly "3 Legs" and it's McCartey-esque first verse with clean sounding, good-boy vocals, followed by the loud, slightly distorted Lennon-esque chorus. This is how nearly every Beatles song is structured. As much as McCartney may have been wanting his independence from The Beatles the musical style and the song structures were still hanging on in 1971.

"Ram" did not receive great critical acclaim on its initial release. It wasn't until "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" went to number 1 in the U.S. and the album went platinum that it actually gained acceptance. Paul had been blamed in the popular press for having broken up the Beatles. He had even sued his former bandmates. The wives were also the targets of much fan ridicule. People used to joke about both Yoko Ono's and Linda McCartney's vocal abilities, and there were once bootlegs around from the mixer board taps that isolated Linda's vocals on tour with Wings. These may have added undue credit to the fact. But, take a listen to "Dear Boy", a vocal, or rather, choral extravaganza of Paul and Linda's voices that this remaster lifts to another level. The number of takes they needed to record these tracks is irrelevant because she does it well. Linda can sing, and I always loved the way her little tart character posed the opening questions of "Long-Haired Lady" - "Do you love me like you know you ought to do?" and then answered with the nasal refrain of a working girl, "Or is this the only thing you want me for". You can just hear her lifting her skirt and pointing to the item in question.

If you have time for only one track, listen to the closer "The Back Seat Of My Car". It's a typical McCartney epic that foreshadows a little of "Live And Let Die" while recalling both Sgt. Pepper, the whole side 2 of Abbey Road, and all of the Badfinger tracks that McCartney penned.

On this remaster of "Ram", you can hear all of the sounds and studio stylings that were still fresh in the mind of the master in 1971. The music doesn't just hold its own even today, if you listen closely (loud with a premium set of headphones) you can hear a rock-n-roll recording history lesson. This is what it sounded like when masters spent time recording the music with instruments, thru tubes and onto tape. This is the sound of the Good Old Days - just as I remember them.

Coldplay and Adele Showing Music Industry How To Emulate Film Distribution

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:41:00 +0000

That's right. I said it. Just when we figured the Film and TV business were the dinosaurs in the room - lagging way behind in their understanding the digital business - the music industry is beginning to look more and more like the film industry. "How's that?" you may ask.

As you may have read in other places, Coldplay, like Adele, will not be bringing their new release Mylo Xyloto to streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and the like. The official "artistic" reason from Coldplay's side was that the new album is a work that should be experienced from start to finish. Pretty lame excuse since single track downloads would be counter to that principle and the likelihood of a full album listening experience is much higher on streaming. (Unless, of course, they are making it a Full CD download only from iTunes)

While a four-track sampler of Adele's 21 is available on Spotify, that seems to be more timed with the release plan to drive CD and digital sales from iTunes and other stores. With 21 being the top selling album of the year so far, and Coldplay well positioned to enter in at No.1, there's no need to speculate on the obvious. There is more money to be made by these artists from digital sales than from streaming. Here's the deal. Artists get a fraction of a cent every time a song is streamed vs. around 20 cents per download from iTunes (according to calculations presented in a recent article in Rolling Stone). That's all well and good, and works for the likes of Adele, Coldplay, and a handful of other world-class artists,
but certainly not for the other 99% occupying Music Street. These others have a distinct advantage releasing via as many channels as possible, ticking away as many fractions of a penny as they can get paid for. In the big picture, however, I am seeing a trend among the artist elite, artist management, and the industry, that could well become the model of the future. As we all struggle over the benefits, advantages, differences, and pricing of subscription vs. download, and try to find business models for the new millennium, can the music industry actually learn something from the film distributors? Is "windowing" the answer?

Just as the film industry has managed their post-theatrical windows from home video (DVD) to digital (VOD and subscription) to pay-TV and then free-to-air TV - is the music industry moving in that direction? Will the A-list artists release on CD and digital download as a first window, and 2 months later be available on premium subscription streams, followed by the free (ad-based) services at 6 months? Will the up-and-coming indie bands become akin to a "direct-to-DVD" movie - only "direct to Spotify" instead? It could be an interesting solution and maybe workable if one feeds the "gods of streaming" with the key singles as they release for radio (to keep the pirates at bay).

It's there. It's just under the surface or lurking around the corner. I wonder how long it will take until they massage it into play. On a side note - I'd also like to see more TV distribution going direct to play services and skipping the broadcast window in international markets. It would help boost the play services over time and give them a life of their own.

Give it time. Give it time. It's coming.

My Wishlist For Spotify's"New Direction" Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Spotify announced today that that there will be a global press conference on November 30 with the theme "New Direction". What could that new direction be? Here a wishlist.

1. Up. As in Integrated cloud storage for your own library or library "matching". This would be fantastic and give iTunes Match a major headache. It would also allow Spotify to open up more catalog in more territories and/or fill the gaps from your own local library. Tracks that you have locally that are not available because of territory restrictions in Spotify's agreements, could be matched and made available to you based on your prior "ownership". While I love Spotify this is something they need to implement soon to keep ahead of iTubes and iCloud. I know iCloud doesn't technically "stream" but that's just semantics. It caches and plays a progressive download until that track is finished or you navigate away. Spotify is basically a bit torrent client playing up tracks from many points across the internet. That's what gives it such great performance - and is also why you won't see a browser-based Spotify. (unless some engineers out there have tips on how HTML5, Facebook and Spotify can fit together to make a torrent client) Likelihood: 3/5

2. Sideways. As in adding video. And not just music videos across the board, but branded artist pages with exclusive preview content. The seeds have been planted as you can see here with this exclusive video from Björk. This becomes a great way for artists to lift themselves above the chatter and get more plays, as well as leveraging the massive social connection via Facebook. This would also make display adverts a new source of revenue in the free service (powered by Facebook?). That is something that's hard to do when people or only listening and not watching. Of course - this assumes they have it all cleared with the labels and publishers. Likelihood: 4/5

3. Inside. Into the arenas in partnership with Live Nation or or other tour promoters. This would fit nicely into the brand page concept and create new revenue streams.
Imagine the revenues one could pull in by selling overflow remote viewing of sold-out performances to premium subscribers. It's a big step in development so I give it a low likelihood but the future is not too far away for this one to become a reality. Partner it up with that great Facebook integration and the sky's the limit. (I have a couple of other tricks to add onto this one that would give Facebook a wet dream but I'm keeping those to myself). Likelihood: 2/5

4. In-dash. What would make sense, given all of the effort they've shown with home electronics integration with Sonos, Philips and others, is some automotive partnerships. Spotify in-dash would be a super next step at this point. Likelihood: 4/5

5. South. A geographic direction and this fits more directly into the concept of a clever press event tagline. Will Spotify break the news on new partnerships in LAM? América Móvil has ca 120 million subs across Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and Spotify has been looking for people to do development in the region. A very music hungry market but a tough nut to crack and make profitable. Likelihood: 2.5/5

6. West. Many have speculated that movies and TV series could be the next thing on the agenda but I doubt it. I could be wrong but Spotify isn't geared up for that yet and, unless they have something brewing with Facebook, I see it being a long shot. It is, indeed, a direction they need to go eventually but the press conference is being held in New York. To me that still means music related. If had been planned for L.A. I would believe it more. Likelihood: 2/5

7. 90° turn. Yup. The most obvious play on the term "new direction" would be a 90 degree spin on the interface. Landscape mode is something that has been sorely lacking for way too long now. While hardly worthy of a press event by itself, a set of dedicated apps for iPad and Android tablets with the introduction of landscape mode across all apps would be worth a hallelujah chorus. Never underestimate the value of hyping small steps to keep your market presence chugging along. They could always call the new version "Spotify-S" Likelihood: 4.5/5

Steve Jobs gave my children's grandmother a voice

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:58:00 +0000

My first computer was a Mac.

Winding down my college years I was like most twenty-somethings and looking for something to do with my life - a means to pay rent, stock the fridge, and become part of the professional world. In my case, being in film school meant finding something creative to do. Some old friends from high school and university had gotten together and formed an advertising agency. It wasn't the biggest shop in town (three guys) but they were doing innovative things and taking on printed projects in a very efficient way. They were doing color layout and printing using a new type of desktop computer called a Macintosh (Macintosh SE to be exact). Color documents such as menus, brochures, fliers, were being created using Mac Write and Mac Paint. The program had several fonts to chose from and you could assign color to text and shapes! You could copy/paste text and shift elements around in a desktop graphical interface using a mouse! I'd actually used a mouse before for editing digital audio on DOS machines. I din't like it much as I believed myself to be faster using arrow and command keys rather than clicking and dragging (I got over it). But, Oh! The Mac! There I sat at the dawn of desktop publishing age and didn't even realize the revolution had started.

The journey continued and a couple of years later I had migrated to Photoshop and one of the first AVID Media Composer non-linear editing suites in town - installed on a Mac II. Apple and the Mac had become an integral part of my professional and personal life. I was a fan. But it wasn't until my good friend Erik came home with a PowerBook 500 that I knew I had to start saving up for the next PowerBook model. My very first laptop and own home computer was the PowerBook 5300CE. Infrared file transfer was very cool, and I couldn't wait to get my CompuServe account up and running.

Life after that has included 2 x G4 stationary machines, 2 x Cinema Displays, 2 clam-shell iBooks (lime green), a new iMac, a G4 PowerBook, an intel MacBook Pro, 2 iPods, 1 iPod Nano, 1 iPod Touch and an iPad2. And i loved them all as much as I loved watching Steve Jobs come on stage a couple of times a year and reveal to the world what the next cool tech item was that I would be adding to my shopping list, and how much easier entertainment and communication would be. How much more fun we all could have.

The best testament I can give to the greatness of Steve's vision and dedication to simplicity and elegance is this: My mother, who is into her 80's (sorry, Mom but it's important to the story) began her computer literacy on an iMac in 1998. This was so we could chat on CompuServe and bounce emails (I live in Stockholm, she is in Denver). She picked it up quickly and as online communication evolved we moved to video via iChat, and Skype. She's now on her second iPhone and not too many weeks ago we had a nice morning/afternoon chat over Facetime on our iPads (yes, my 80+ year-old mother has an iPad2). There we sat. I in my kitchen and Mom sitting up in her bed with morning toast and coffee on the nightstand. Two iPads in hand. My daughters behind me waving to Grandma. Sharing a moment inspired and realized by a catalytic force pushing the boundaries of the tech industry. Technology itself cannot change humanity on its own. Passionate visionaries who believe in the dream are the ones that can bridge the gap between technology and life, and successfully bring it to the masses. They are the ones who "Stay hungry. Stay Foolish".

Thank you, Steve, for innovation so elegant and simple that 80 year-old great grandmothers get it as easily as a four year-old child so that I can open my iPad and just ping her on the other side of the world. I can't help but feel the next 30 years will be much less exciting without you and that I must now make peace with the notion of waiting even longer for the next big thing. You will be missed.

Airplay - Shmairplay! Bose Getting It Right With Bluetooth Streaming

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:10:00 +0000

New SoundLink Mobile takes Bluetooth A2DP streaming over Airplay

I like this. I like it so much I may even go and buy one (after listening in-store first, of course). I'm just so happy to see a major audio brand making a 3rd party speaker system without that bloody iDevice dock. I've been using stereo BT headsets for years, even with my old java-based Walkman phones. The headsets that Sony Ericsson were making then, and the ones they have today, were and still are, fantastic. Small barrels about the diameter of a pen, that clip nicely onto your lapel/shirt/bag strap, containing mic, player controls, answer and power buttons and fitted with a standard mini jack for whatever pair of headphones you prefer.

The beauty of these little devices is that as soon as I get home I jack it into my home stereo and have Spotify from my mobile streaming all around. I know guys who have DJ:d gigs using these and two mobile phones. So why can't I find Bluetooth support in any decent portable kit?

This new SoundLink Mobile by Bose appears to have a great size for taking with you in your carry-on, daytrippin', or compact living. Sure you may miss the advantage of a charger for your iProduct but this is a step in the right direction. I, for one, am tired of Apple's "tired" ecosystem and welcome the change from a major brand like Bose toward filling the gap for all of us music-loving members of the Android community - and every other Bluetooth enabled audio device. Hooray for Bose! Can't wait to listen and buy!

iPhone 4S An Early Holiday Gift For Android Partners

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Well THAT was underwhelming to say the least. I'm not quite sure whether to blame Apple or the over-hyped tech media who raised the expectations, but yesterday's Apple announcement left me nonplussed in a big way. What happened? I have a few theories down the page but the main question is, "Where's the iPhone 5?" Where's a new form factor that says "we've done something new in the past 18 months"? It all just fell flat. First came a long recap of everything Apple had already revealed around iOS5, then some updates to the iPod line and then... a souped up iPhone4. Yawn.

Boxed chocolates and blind dates

We've all heard that old line, "It's what's on the inside that counts!" I got news for you, Tim. That line only applies to boxed chocolates and blind dates! We all know it's used as consolation. When someone has a "great personality". Apple's strength has always been design and usability. Anyone caring enough about the inside specs would know that iPhone has always been sub-par with it's competitors, even feature for feature. Where Apple and iPhone have succeeded, however, is in creating an ecosystem that just works - and keeping the feeding frenzy alive. That requires more than just speed bumps and some voice control. I mean - who uses that anyway? I'm a tech freak and have used voice activated dialing on and off since the mid '90s, but it is certainly not mainstream. Google has had voice integration in Android a good while now and for Apple to be touting SIRI ( a feature of iOS5 - not iPhone4S), a dual-core A5 processor, and an 8 megapixel camera as the big news at this stage, means they are just catching up to where Android devices have been for months. With new and slimmer designs due out for the holiday shopping season, as well as a few more speed bumps by HTC, LG, Samsung and the rest, as well as screen improvements and other features, Google and its Android Army have a good chance to rake in big in the next few months.

Conspiracy theory or broader market strategy?

This just seems so unlike Apple. I hesitate to believe it has anything to do with Steve jobs leaving the building but one can't deny that a new CEO will have a new style and inherit a lot of baggage.
I have to wonder if Samsung, who is being sued by Apple in every market under the sun, could be having "difficulties" with certain components they supply to Apple for both iPhone and iPad. If, for instance, iPhone5 (which we have seen cases for) had a new, larger display and the supplier was having "difficulties" making quantities... then maybe what you do if you're Tim Cook is find a way to stuff the new components you do have into the old body together with inventory you already have. It's a good backup plan.

Raise the bar in the low end

Another aspect which Chris Taylor mentions in this Mashable post is quite simply that Tim Cook knows inventory management. He knows that Apple's iPhone volumes are tied, for the most part, to when carrier customers are renewing their subscriptions. All of those 3G and 3GS users out there are coming up on renewal time, and while an iPhone 4S may seem a let down for the hard core Apple fanboys, it just may be enough of a jump for those early adopters to upgrade. This would leave Apple a nice, new iPhone5 design to roll out at a point where the iPhone4 and late 3GS users are due to renew. Given the economic climate today that isn't a bad strategy at all and, when you think about it, makes good sense. And, more importantly, moving the 3GS down to free with a long-term carrier plan means Apple has all the opportunity in the world to pull the mat out from under Nokia, who has only been maintaining any market share by dominating the low-end developing markets. As Chris Taylor pointed out, can you imagine how many people in these markets would hop on-board with a 3GS included at no charge with a carrier plan? If I were sitting in Espo I would be very concerned.

Is the new Facebook the old MySpace? Or will strategic media partnerships make the clutter attractive?

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Timeline and modularity create space for Spotify, Netflix, Hulu and others

Well...one thing was accurate. The new ticker on Facebook was an indication of a complete revamp of the screen real estate and therein a new, necessary component of the user experience. It's current redundancy will be replaced by the other components of Timeline, which Zuck revealed yesterday at Facebook's f8 conference (keynote video here). I have to say that, while it sure is a more aesthetically pleasing layout of my social graph, it sure looks like FB is becoming more and more akin to the cluttered, overloaded UX that became the Achilles Heel of MySpace. I mean, I like pushing the boundaries of tech advancement, and the new business models that follow with that, but my feeling (as a user) is that FB is pushing the limits of human nature and information overload (even for the MTV/ADD generations) and that the whole thing could backfire if they aren't careful.

On the other hand I think the new Timeline concept has great potential if they manage to integrate the privacy levels in a thorough and clever way, AND if they make the modularity of it all simple and manageable. Two big elements of this which I think are fantastic are the (long rumored) Spotify and Hulu integration into the ticker. This is obviously step one of the process and even Daniel Ek at Spotify expanded on the development in an interview yesterday - saying there would be a Spotify widget as well like a player app as a module in the Timline view. So, as you can imagine, with a Spotify player, Hulu player (or other video play service), or even your friends' FB Video feed player (oh yes, it will come soon), your Nike training app, and other apps connected by the Social Graph APIs filling up your Timeline view - that annoying Ticker will become your default feed and trigger point for all things social.

Years ago, while I was working with content propositions for a handset manufacturer, one of the most powerful and underused tools we had implemented into the software was the live RSS reader on the standby screen. Now, of course, this is standard social integration via widgets on most smart phones. Facebook has just optimized the ticker experience to make it more complete and I would expect to see this lifted directly over to standby screens by most smart phone makers. One unfortunate side-effect they need to get a handle on is the seeming vaporization of privacy settings around that ticker feed. I'm seeing everything my friends are writing to everyone I don't know. That's not good.

So where do you get the new Timeline view? Right now it's only available in beta to FB app developers so unless you're signed up and have an app in the system it doesn't look like you will be enjoying this just yet. I predict the masses will bitch and moan only to give up. 250 million users will be pissed off and react, but the other 1/2 billion will follow the tail of the animal in front of them on up the trail of social web paradigms and it will all be business as usual in no time. Two things are clear: 1) Facebook has established the hooks to lift media consumption fully into the social engagement experience and now needs to just implement. 2) I wrote about it months ago when Google Music beta was announced, saying they needed to provide APIs to Spotify and others to tie into the cloud storage for my local files. Hasn't happened. And I don't see Google making as much progress as quickly as Facebook has. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said yesterday that during initial meetings with Facebook, Zuckerberg had asked him what his growth target number was. Reed gave Zuckerberg his number and Mark's reply was that for Facebook, success would be reaching that number... x2. Facebook is getting the media aggregators onboard.

Love 'em or hate 'em. Right now Facebook has not just the number of eyeballs but also the number of fingers hovering over the buttons and the hooks to trigger that crowd mentality. Call it "Real Time Serendipity", "Peer Pressure", "Recommendation" or anything similar, but with 750 million users wrapped up in your social web, your worst day is going to be miles ahead of your competition.

C'mon Facebook! What are you thinking?

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:55:00 +0000

Are the latest FB updates a UX fail? Or is this just one brilliant ingredient to the new "secret sauce" of social due out today at f8?

Pulling my hair out. And not much to work with, Yet another seemingly useless Facebook update irritating my social fiber. Thanks. Seems like every time one turns around the coders at Facebook have come with some narrow, engineer driven, new, improved concept of how things should work, look, and feel. "Hey guys!" I just rewrote that algorithm and optimized the variable of quantifying the edge ranking based on the number of times a user clicks on a family member (first cousin or closer) more than twice a month on consecutive Tuesdays, as that's when our statistics show the highest weight of family-to-family member posts - including photos!" "Oh yeah... I changed the background colour for photos so you can't see the ad links behind them and have to scroll down the page to see the comments as well"

Here's a tip Facebook. What's fun for engineers is not always what's fun for the rest of the world. We want it simple. And simple means - something we can understand - not something you can understand. The news feed has come farther and farther away from anything relevant to me. People I have never posted to, commented on, or received anything from, constantly come into the top of my feed, I had given up on the feed and used "most recent" only. Simple enough to scroll down that list. Now you've complicated that and removed the easy drop down filter. Geez! And added a ticker/scroller in the sidebar - where I can Facebook while I'm Facebooking? At least have the courtesy to allow us to turn these on/off as modules, just like My Yahoo or Google. Or is that your plan?

Ahhhh.... the plot thickens. Later today the powers that be at FB are going to launch something BIG. A new game-changer for social as some report it. I have no insight how it will be, but with some of the changes we're seeing I wonder if modularity will be the cornerstone of the new FB. The rumor mill abounds with music services, or music service plugins perhaps? Netflix, Hulu, or other video serivces integrated? Skype video? Already there. Yup! I think FB is going modular and the simple ticker/sidebar is why. Today that little feature seems quite redundant, but if the central area of screen real estate on FB is being filled up with music, video, or other services (video requiring large viewing real estate) then the social interactive features need to become modular and more of an IM oriented piece of the proposition. That's why they have been putting so much effort into the UX placement and capabilities of the messaging and the chat functions. Think about the usefullness of the ticker for listening or viewing parties powered by Spotify or Hulu. Now you're getting it.

Just my theory looking at the box from the outside but who knows? We'll find out shortly.

The Unspoken Benefit Of Cloud Services - More Gadgets

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:36:00 +0000

I can have even more gadgets at the same time!

Samsung announced the Galaxy Note the other day. A sweet 5.3" phone/tablet/phone which will be shipping shortly. Straight away I could hear people asking, "Why? Don't we have our hands full with 10" and 7" tablets and 4.5" phones already?" I say - "Hell no! More stuff!" This is the true agenda with cloud services. It's why manufacturers have been trying for years to provide users with backup services for their data and to make it easy to migrate to newer products when they come along. With Android, iOS, Dropbox, and everything else connected in the cloud - who cares? I can have my iPad, my Arc, my iMac, my wife's iPhone, and anything else, all connected and updated 24/7. And now they're coming with yet another product category and I just don't have any threshold left to stop me (money aside). I simply must have a Galaxy Note in my bag for those times when my eyes are too tired to look at a 4" screen, and I am too tired to hold the weight of an iPad. Now, if I could somehow pair my Bluetooth stereo headset with multiple simultaneous devices...

Life in a bathtub at 250 km/h - what a rush!

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 10:39:00 +0000

Grand Theft Auto's got nothin' on this!

Not too long ago I reached another milestone in Birthdays. My wife and friends pitched in to buy me a day of racing in both Formula Renault and Formula 1 cars as an "experience" package with Rajamäki Racing Experience. The fun part was that we had all pitched together to get the same gift certificate for my Best Man on his similar milestone the year before, but due to scheduling conflicts he never used it. So a grudge race was in the makings.

All I can say is, WOW! What an experience! And what a well managed operation. The gang at Rajamäki was fantastic and very thorough in everything they did. As is the way in racing circles, the day went like clockwork, filled with speed, yellow flags, cars into the wall, and every bit of testosterone pumping, adrenaline-junkie excitement you'd expect. This is the story.

Part 1: Good morning and welcome!

We arrived to cheery welcomes and a garage where all of the cars were already unloaded and staring you in the face. Very high cool-factor. Lots of cameras and phones snapping pictures. Must have been a rush of uploads on Facebook in those first 5 minutes. We were ushered into a moving van filled with race suits, shoes, and helmets of various sizes and kitted out. The gear was, thankfully, in fine condition and not dripping with leftover sweat from the days before. And believe me - you sweat. There is a reason you see drivers walking the pits with their overalls off of their upper body and the arms tied around the waste like prison wear.

Part 2: Meet the track

Once changed we were sent back to our personal cars and told to fall in line behind the team van (driven by Niklas, our coordinator) for a tour of the track. We followed him around the track single-file as he drove the optimal race line, and stopped at key places around the track for briefings and instructions on some of the key corners. Things like - "the asphalt fades away over a hump here. DO NOT ACCELERATE. YOU WILL SPIN OUT. And - "If you brake like a sissy and come out of the straight carrying too much speed - do not try to make the turn. Go thru the cones onto the runout and use the full width of the track to turn around" Lots of safety instructions and tips on how to manage the car and track. You have to understand - the personal deductible for ANY damage is max. $2000 on the smaller F-Renault cars and $5000 for the F1 cars. As Niklas put it, "Nothing on an F1 car costs less than $2000, so you don't want to even tap the wall" (more on that later). So after the rundown on the track we all had 4 laps in our private cars to get a "feel" for the race line and the surface. A very good opener, and you know some of these guys with their BMW Z4, Audi A5, Merceds Benz, etc, were loving it.

Part 3: Formula Renault

Following a short but concise safety briefing in the meeting room where we got more info on the cars themselves, it was down to the track. We were 17 guys this day, divided into equal groups based on size, and assigned to four cars (one car with 5 drivers). Formula Renault is a class of formula racing founded in 1971 and is regarded as an entry-level series before moving on to Formula Three, World Series by Renault, GP2 or Formula One.

These things are like small, uncomfortable bathtubs, formed around skinny little 18-25 year old up-and-comers. So squeezing some slightly "rounder" middle-aged farts into these cars requires two parts contortion and one part "sucking it in". If you've never sat in one of these before its unreal. Your legs slide tightly into the throat of the body, which in my case, was very snug. Somewhere up there at the end I could feel the pedals, which are also very close together. If you had size 14 feet you'd have a very hard time! My shoulders were wider than the cockpit! I couldn't see the fastening point for the harness. And after a summer of laying about in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops, I have to say I was feeling more than a tad bit claustrophobic at first, sweating there in 75 degree heat with racing suit, helmet and gloves on, being buckled into an unfamiliar cockpit made for some kid 30 pounds lighter! But you know what? All of that goes away as soon as you get your push, pop the clutch and get underway.

Part 4: Driving very fast (0-100 km/h in 4sec - Top speed 260 km/h)
There are a lot of rules on the day. For safety reasons and to encourage the "experience" concept, they don't time you. They don't want people racing - they want people having fun driving fast. You ARE allowed to pass but only on the back straight (wouldn't want rubber against rubber with novice drivers). And there was no pace driver during the two F-Renault sessions. So if you're slow you will get a blue flag to let you know to allow traffic to pass. If you're fast - you get to pass! But driving these cars is not your father's Oldsmobile. It ain't your father's Audi or BMW. These things are all torque. You just can't stomp on it. Everything is about balance and that means easing on the acceleration out of the turns. It's also a little trickier since these cars require no clutching when shifting gears on acceleration, but you need to clutch on every downshift. I'll tell you this. I never spun. In fact, I think I was in the top 3 in speed based on garage talk, but there were plenty of guys spinning into the grass and many yellow flags. Fortunately, I never had one during any of my sessions but there was typically one in each. The second driver in our F-Renault car spun out and went across the grass and tapped the wall during the first session. They had to pull into the garage and change out a wishbone arm on the front suspension and fix some other small things. Not at all cool since I was next up and had to wait. That meant that my first 10 minute session was with three other drivers that had already done their first 10 minutes. I held my own. But in the second session I started 4/4 and ended 1/4. (see the shortened 2-lap video below). The grudge race was decided as you can see my Best Man in the black car overshooting at the end of the back straight and turning around. A great warm-up for the main attraction. (see the full 10 minutes if you want here)

Part 5: Driving very, very fast (0-200 km/h in 5sec - Top speed 330 km/h)
What can I say? Well, for starters, there's a lot more room in an F1 than the little F-Renault cars. Maybe 2-3 inches in width! (Yes, that's irony) But you do sit a lot lower and a bit more reclined. This is good as the drag on your helmet is intense even in the F-Renault car. These cars are longer, wider, and heavier but sport 550hp at 12000RPM. And you need to wind them out. The common mistake is that beginners will shift at 5-6000RPM. No. You need to wind them out and get the christmas lights on the steering wheel to light up. Then you get that nice little sonic boom when you shift gears. Oh! So nice! And braking? Don't be a wuss. Stomp on it. Our track was cut short so the back straight was not long enough to really make 6th gear worth while. You would have gone into sixth and dropped down directly. So we never had the room to get these up near there 330km/h top speed. We were topping at around 250km/h (155-160 mph) maybe. But then you had about 150 meters to brake down to 3rd gear and make a 90 degree right turn into a hairpin. Sweeeet! (see my wing mounted GoPro cam) We had Johan Rajamäki driving a F-Renault pace car in front of us on the F1 drive. The instructions were to give him room into the start/finish so we would have room to accelerate and "drive an F1" car. If we were too close then we would be reduced to following an F-Renault. Makes sense. And it was worth it.

Part 6: Conclusion
So I confirmed a few things yesterday. 1) driving fast in a real race car is very cool! 2) I need to lose a few pounds (but I already knew that). 3) It's ok to be on the edge of Old Fartdom and hanging onto the excitement of youth. 4) The price you pay, besides the fee for the day, is the aching and small bruises at key points along your shoulders, back, legs, and arms. I feel like I have had an all-rides pass at the amusement park and been going non-stop for five days. Would I recommend this to a friend? You bet! Would I do it again? Abso-f@$*ing-lutely!

Angry Balls Attack My Kitchen In New 3D Shooter

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:21:00 +0000

Ball Invasion Turns Real World Into 3D Shooter for iPad2

We've seen AR overlay shooters using live camera input before. We've seen game surfaces generated by using the camera. What is new and innovative here is generating a 3D playing field using the camera and accurately, quickly, updating the environment during gameplay.

What It Is

Ball Invasion uses simultaneous localization and mapping technology to generate real-time 3D maps of the environment as you move the iPad’s camera around. Once you generate the playing field your challenge is to shoot “malicious and cunning balls hiding in the real world,” with the challenges and difficulty increasing with each progressive level.

The scanning process is simple and the on-screen instructions are very clear and helpful. There's even a first-run video that instructs you how to scan an environment with your iPad2 camera.

Ball Invasion is the first product from Stockholm-based computer vision startup 13th Lab. The startup specializes in simultaneous localization and mapping technology (as opposed to your average, everyday augmented reality) in mobile environments. Their platform, called SLAM, "lets you very accurately position your iPad 2 in 3D space and overlay stuff on reality without any known or printed visual markers, as is required in other solutions,” 13th Lab founder Petter Ivmark explains.

They recommend backgrounds with high detail and I did notice the app mapping loads of tracking points based on highlights and contrasts as I captured the environment, similar to motion tracking in video effects software. In layman’s terms, the technology turns your real world surroundings into the backdrop for interactive, 3D game play.

Game Play

The game itself is quite fun. There increasing levels of skill involved such as ricocheting balls off of spinning objects to hit targets or bouncing off of surfaces like walls or tables. The accuracy is actually quite good and while it's a little difficult to judge the distance to target in 3D space, you zero-in quickly.

I've had a few problems generating playing fields depending on the backgrounds and the app does not seem to support landscape mode (which would be ergonomically preferred), but these are small problems. The one big drawback is hand and arm fatigue. As fun as it is, the iPad2 isn't exactly lightweight when you're holding it up with both arms for several minutes at a time. Guess I need to load up on my 12oz. curls to build up arm strength.

Ball Invasion for iPad2 has been out a while and is available on iTunes with 50% discounted introductory pricing ($1.99).

Hard working fashionistas recording HD on their DSLRs

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:20:00 +0000

More proof of the higher quality and growing dominance of web-based video

See the Ida Sjöstedt show at BON magazine

Backstage and all around the fashion venues at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week you couldn't help but notice the complete absence of TV news cameras. Sure, there were loads of fantastic collections to distract me but being the tech nerd I am, I was into observing the tech kit as well. I won't say there was an absence of television teams, but there was barely a traditional camera front-end to be seen.

I would say 99.9% of the kit on hand was HD recordable DSLR cameras with complementary rigs such as extended view-finders, focus pulling, led area lighting and radio receivers for remote audio. In the fashion industry I would guess that nearly all of the content is aimed at print and web with video being nearly all web (not so much to broadcast). So it may be natural that the DSLR is
the weapon of choice for photographer/videographers in this area but I think it points to a bigger trend. One that Apple maybe has seen and is banking on as they are obviously moving away from the high-end professional market that was Final Cut Studio and onto Final Cut Pro X, which is focusing on a market that is very much more based on video for web publishing and is nowhere close to broadcast or major post-production work flows.

My opinion of FCP-X's place in the market aside, Apple may be right about the market trend. It is clearly a more lucrative market for them to flood a higher end, cheap software into the web video masses that are looking to up their game, than to truly cater to the small percentage in the very high end. And when I see dozens of DSLR photogs running around recording video, pumping memory sticks into card readers and publishing edited video of fashion shows and interview segments to the web in under an hour, Apple's logic seems to fit.

I wonder how quickly the DSLR will shift the balance of influence between print/web desks and the TV news divisions. Will TV news departments start dumping their video cameras for smaller, compact DSLR's and provide stories, stills, and video to their web desks? The shift has begun already. Just a few months ago, USA Today made a drastic restructuring of their newsrooms, eliminating the individual desk editors and building the newsroom around "content rings". Each ring repurposes the content for their electronic platform such as mobile, web, tablets, and so on. Evidence that the customer touch-point has become equally as important as the content itself. And that touch-point is more and more being reached via a connected device rather than traditional media.

While you're pondering that, please enjoy the videos below featuring two of Sweden's best design brands, Tiger of Sweden and Odd Molly. (see all 30 of the designers at BON magazine)

Odd Molly show: from BON magazine

Tiger of Sweden: from BON magazine

Thank you Huff Post for adding Classic View to your iPad app!

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:10:00 +0000

the new & improved classic version

A few days ago I got an update notice that Huff Post had released their iPad app version 3.0. After downloading it and starting up, I was met by the choice of selecting Glide or Classic mode. Whew! I had given up using their iPad app and was just browsing in Atomic Web instead. The previous version 2.0 was based on a picture-driven visual orgy, sliding, gliding, "look what you can do with an iPad" interface which was completely useless and over-the top. It was like their developers drank way too much Jolt cola or Red Bull (or maybe both) and went crrrraaaazy!

All credit to innovation but this (and you too CNN if you're listening) reminded me of when digital video effects (DVE) boxes came into television production in the 80's. Picture in picture effects flying around your TV screen, spinning with stardust trails and light effects gleaming across hundreds, thousands of page turns in every newscast, sports scoreboard, local car advert... STOP!

Magazines are meant to be read. News images are meant to support the story, not be icons or the center of some navigation paradigm. Faces covering the screen with small text underneath in a video-wall look and feel scaled down to a 9-inch tablet? Really? I love eye candy but when it grossly sacrifices function for form it just ain't right. Keep it classic, elegant, familiar, and readable and limit new touch features to ease of use functionality and menu structure. With classic view I can now get back onboard.

Apple's patently obvious moves

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:42:00 +0000

Yet another Apple filing has surfaced. This one seemingly describing a means for providing global phone, or as Engadget put it, "one phone to rule them all". At the very least it allows for a "customized user experience" allowing users to seamlessly switch carriers without the need for a new phone or a new SIM card. The latter would require a global SIM card.

The patent in question, entitled: Method and apparatus for using a wireless communication device with multiple service providers, describes using "a set of one or more identifier values stored in the mobile wireless communication device" in order to allow for the automatic configuration of that device to any carrier service profile. Simply put, you could put your SIM card into any iPhone (or sim bearing product) and configure for the correct carrier. This part in itself is nothing new and may well be patented already. Unique identifiers that most handset manufacturers grab over the network from your SIM and phone during first-run would be:

MNC (Mobile Network Code) your primary carrier)

MCC (Mobile Country Code) Country issue of the SIM

SNC (Secondary Network Code) the one you're roaming on

SCC (Secondary Country Code) If you're traveling internationally

IMEI Number (Unique identifier for each handset lie a VIN on your car)

MSISDN (your unique carrier subscription number, typically phone number)

With this info most handset manufacturers have automated first-run wizards which send this info to their own databases of carrier settings to then configure all of your SMS, MMS, Internet, etc. and get you hooked up. Most handsets will have a limited number of these configurations onboard to match the software versions by territory. What Apple is proposing, apparently, is to have everything onboard the product so that each product is a global release. And then to take it one step further by ranking carriers based on pricing and subscription models and matching that to your user profile (how much you call, text, surf, and so on).

This last bit is what is new, challenges the market as we know it today, and points to Apple truly looking for the Global SIM and removing the carrier as gatekeeper to the customer. They have previously met with stiff resistance and I would be surprised if that attitude softens. I am also of the opinion that Apple is once again trying to patent the obvious by taking existing patents and years-old standard telco practices and submitting them with very small changes as revolutionary new ideas worthy of a patent. Just like their submission for streaming music optimization. A technology that Spotify has been doing since its inception - only better.

Frankly, with all of the patent suits flying around the mobile industry right now it's becoming comical and Apple is more than beginning to look like Microsoft in the 90's, scooping up every good idea that's already out there and pitching it as their own.

Source: Apple Insider

GLMPS is cool but it's been done before

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:04:00 +0000

All Things D had a story on a new startup, Glmps (pronounced "glimpse"), which has created a new iPhone app that captures the moments just before taking a still image on your iPhone. It achieves this by recording video from the moment the camera is engaged. Once everything is captured you can save it to their website and share via Twitter or Facebook. They even have Foursquare check-in.

Now, the social aspects of this are sort of hygiene at this point and the concept, while appearing innovative, has been done already and patented. Ina Fried actually mentions this in the article referencing Sony who had a simliar feature integrated into their Cybershot cameras. Here's where Glmps may be on the verge of some IP difficulties.

The patent for the technology that Sony used is actually held by Sony Ericsson who debuted it in the K800i cameraphone in 2006 under the name "Best Pic"(video below the break). The technology was to record/buffer a series of frames before and after shutter activation by - you guessed it - beginning to buffer still frames once the camera was activated (video below). The user could then select the best picture from any one of the recorded frames. Sony Ericsson then licensed this over to the Cybershot team at Sony.

Now I wasn't there the day they filed the patent but I do know some of the people with their names on the filing and I can't imagine a good patent attorney submitting anything in language that wasn't so vague as to cover recording "a series of frames preceding, or following the activation of the shutter". Glmps may argue they are recording video, but what is video but a series of still frames? Hence the reference to "frame rate" or "fps".

I like the idea, and the social tie-ins will no doubt make it a popular app, but they are treading in murky IP waters.

I got mustard all over my Facebook!

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Johnny's Mustard moves the Facebook "Like" Button off the page and onto the product

It may have been done already somewhere but this is the first time I've seen it, and by a little mustard brand in southern Sweden no less. That's right. Johnny's Senap (senap = mustard), a brand under Dr. PersFood of Eslöv in Sweden has taken social media to heart in a big way. Right on the label! We all know how important the call to action is in determining the success of brand marketing activities, and especially with regards to social media, but I wonder how many major brands have actually moved the "Like" button call to action beyond their web presence and onto their product.

This is fantastic and it makes me wonder what interesting combination of Augmented Reality and app integration, can succeed in moving the actual function of the Like button off of the web and onto the product. It's only a matter of time.

Well done Johnny's Senap!

The new measure of "cool"

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:46:00 +0000

When I was a teenager you could have lifted me into any scene from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. I was a major music junkie. I spent all my money on albums (that would be vinyl) and listened to them till the grooves wore thru. And, like any properly cool teenager of the time, LP's were stored in orange crates or other similar packing crates. I maybe had 3 crates worth of vinyl at any given time, but I didn't come remotely close to my best friend, Matt. He must have had 5-6 crates of LP's. Very cool. And my brother-in-law? He had at least 10! He was cool beyond words.

You get it. Music is cool. Having music is cool. And in my youth, the measure of "cool" was the number of orange crates of LP's you had stacked up next to your amp and turntable. That was how you knew who to go to for music advice or to make a casette tape.

But, the measure of "cool" has evolved over the years. In the 80's and early 90's it was the number of CD's you had on your bookshelves (I was only up to about 500). With the advent of the internet and with many thanks to the team at Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft for inventing the mp3 format, the measure of "cool" evolved into how many gigabytes of mp3's you had on your hard disk. Fantastic! Everything playable on-demand right from my computer or even... wait for it... a portable mp3 player no larger than a pack of cigs!

Well now we've entered the new millenium, and following Kazaa, Napster, Limewire and every other "get your mp3's free" service, it's been said we have created a generation of music listeners who are lacking a sense of ownership. I would argue, however. that we have simply evolved to the next level in the music coolness equation.

Spotify founder, Daniel Ek, said recently in an interview that the future of music is not ownership but access. He is spot on, and has been ever since I first had Spotify pitched at me in 2008. In this case, what's important to understand is that "ownership" does not necessarily even need to mean "purchased music". "Ownership" means owning the ingestion, storing, database management, syncing and every other process of the file management - music listening experience. And all we really want and need to make it work seamlessly, is access. Quick, easy, access. Why else would radio still be so popular? I push the button in my car and music comes out. Butt simple.

So, in 2011, what's cooler than 120GB of mp3's on your hard disk? 10 million tracks in the air around you all the time, 24/7, just waiting for you to hit a button and bring them into your headphones, stereo, computer, car, tablet, smartphone, whatever. Has the currency of music lost it's value? Or is it simply that the process isn't worth it any more? Maybe a little of both. One thing is certain: access is the new measure of "cool". Accept it and get on board.

Coming soon: The Touchless Touch Screen?

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Qualcom acquiring IP from Gesture Tek to integrate on Snapdragon. (WARNING: High amounts of sarcasm)

Engadget reported today via Phone Scoop that Qualcomm is acquiring some gesture recognition assets from Gesture Tek. I'm not sure just how to feel about this. I have my own slightly jaded view of Gesture Tek and their camera-based gesture recognition technology from a past life, but maybe Qualcomm has an idea here that could be more than an evolution but maybe, just maybe, a revolution? Hmmm.

First: Personal history and common sense

To begin with, I have experienced product organizations before that, for some inexplicable reason, were stuck on the whole Gesture Tek technology and were convinced that gesture gaming was going to be a great selling point for mobile phones. Never mind the inferior and inconsistent technology that was GT at the time, let's assume instead that it was actually a capable implementation. Embedding proprietary technology into a platform and locking yourselves into custom built games with limited possibilities, at an outrageously high development price, is just not sound business. But there were, and still are, even more fundamental reasons why gesture gaming just doesn't fly on mobile - and why I have doubts about camera-based gesture technology on portable devices as a whole.

Game play: My first experience with GT was at a time when 3.5" displays were considered large. Even so, and even with today's larger screens, the distance required for the front-facing camera to be effective for gesture recognition was about.. oh… one to two meters. Now think about it for a second folks. How well would you see the 3.5" display of your mobile phone at that distance? Well enough to accurately play a boxing, basketball or ping-pong game on your mobile? You decide.

Camera requirement: Playing a gesture recognition game requires a front-facing camera and lots of room. Not just that,
but playing a gesture recognition game where the Gesture Tek technology can sense your motions requires not just a camera with a wide enough lens to "see" your movements in order to decrease the distance from the lens, but also a front-facing camera with a resolution AND FRAME RATE high enough to accurately and quickly sense and translate your movement into the gaming environment. Do you think a VGA camera running at 10 fps is going to provide accurate gameplay? You decide.

Desk stand: Can't do it without one and it needs to be at the correct angle. My first experience with the concept was a clamshell form-factor. Ugh!

Nope, never really felt the love for GT in the mobile space. Bad use case and unsound business case. Just too gimmicky.

Next: The future is now… again.

A lot has changed since my period of Gesture Tek due diligence and many things have moved to a better place for gesture recognition and Qualcomm is certainly not doing this for grins. So, what could they have up their sleeve?

Not long ago details were leaked about the new Snapdragon being four times faster in graphics with "console quality gaming." It is reported to support not just 1080p displays and 3D video but 7.1-channel Dolby Surround and up to a 20-megapixel camera should someone actually deliver one for mobile.

Display sizes for smartphones and tablets today are typically in the 4"-10" range. This makes a better playing field for gesture recognition. This doesn't eliminate the front-facing camera requirement (wide angle, high resolution, 30 fps frame rate) but it does make it possible to see what you're doing to a better extent and get some emersion into your gameplay. Still not optimal, however.

Gesture navigation. What if you could go all CSI, Minority Report, Hawaii Five-0 over your Android tablet and navigate thru your mail, news app, or calendar, without having to reach across your desk? I mean, who wants to strain that far up out of the chair and actually touch their touchscreen. I hate greasy fingerprints and I'm always eating fried chicken at my desk for lunch so this would be the killer use case.

Strategic partnership with MS. Could Microsoft and Qualcomm be looking to use this as a path to creating an Xbox 360 Kinect experience on Windows Phone? Hope I'm not standing next to that gamer on my train ride to work.

Input device: With all of the specs mentioned above would it be better to use your mobile device for input only - and put the picture out via mini HDMI to a large screen? Or if you're a gamer - would it be better to just hook up your Xbox 360 Kinect to your TV instead?

Smart TV's: get your chips into Smart TVs with 20-megapixel cameras so we can program gesture navigation controls and ditch that remote control. Can't you just see the channel changing every time you swat at a fly or shake your fist in victory as your striker shoots on goal - CLICK!

These are some very exciting possibilities that could be driving this latest IP acquisition, but I just have to go back to common sense and the title of this post. What is the goal here? To create the touchless touch interface? To create new gaming environments for mobile that are poorly experienced on portable devices? In my opinion (if you haven't guessed it by now) someone at Qualcomm was walking slowly thru the big city and staring up at the skyscrapers. "Psssst. Hey, Bud! Wanna buy some gesture technology?"

When slide rulers and mimeographs ruled the heavens

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:59:00 +0000

It was 42 years ago today. I must have missed it since it was not a major anniversary and NASA is busy closing down the Shuttle program and all that, but it was July 20, 1969 that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their spacecraft on the moon in a nail-biting approach and landing that, if done by the book, should have been aborted. Computer glitches and inadvertent warning lights telling them there were problems, seasoned flight crew in Houston saying ignore it. It's a false signal. Neil Armstrong switching to manual on an approach that was too fast with a spacecraft almost out of their allotted fuel supply yet bringing his ship into land in a first-ever, never been done before, test-pilot type of bravado move. And there you have it.

My wife will tell you how fascinated I am with Space. Ever since I was a little boy staring up at a towering Apollo 11 in the cavernous assembly building at Cape Kennedy (before it was Cape Canaveral) I have had a longing to go into space. Children in the US, and around the world, were fascinated by the Apollo program and launches were live TV extravaganzas. When Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins launched for the Moon that summer long ago, I was with my family at a vacation lodge in Estes Park, Colorado. Four days later, when the Eagle was ready to land, the entire lodge was full of families crowded around a small black & white television in the common room, watching breathlessly as the moment unfolded from an alien surface far, far away. A moment I will never forget.

My mother came to visit yesterday and I posted a picture of her to Facebook and inadvertently wrote a posting for my family to know she had arrived safely: "The Eagle has landed." Funny as I had not even thought about Apollo 11 nor the significance of what I was writing. Just a phrase from history that lies close to my heart.

Today I stumbled upon a story in Atlantic Wire which linked to some Tumblr posts by the National Archive. They have unearthed (no pun intended) the original flight plan documents for Apollo 11.

Original Flight Plan

While it is historically interesting, it also sort of makes the mind boggle to look at that mimeographed document (yes, mimeograph - a form of duplication before xerox machines and electronic printers). There it is, in all of its 1960's crudeness. Sort of quaint actually with its activity checklist, timeline, and little drawings of capsules, lunar landers and the like. It just makes me marvel at how amazing a feat it was.

They say our smartphones have more computing power than an Apollo spacecraft. No doubt about it. And it is just fantastic that mankind, without the aid of laptops, clusters, super computers, iPads, or other portable items, put together a paper copy of a highly technical flight plan, emergency procedure manuals, and other documentation, packed it into a small capsule and sent 3 men into space to land an unproven 4-legged, wingless, rocket propelled machine onto the surface of the Moon. They used slide rulers to do their computations! Jeez. Makes my brain hurt.

So hats off to you guys, again. You captured and fueled the imagination of a generation. Someday maybe we'll go back.

Five ways I learned to love my iPad2

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 04:15:00 +0000

I was NOT an iPad fanboy when the 1st generation came out. I saw the coolness. I saw the sexiness. But I just couldn't get onboard. Everything I wanted to do on the iPad I could do on my iPod Touch or any one of my Android phones. You couldn't even make a phone call from an iPad and still can't (Skype out excluded). So the iPad seemed to be a blown up iPod. And it was.

Along came the iPad2, or iPad 1.5 as it probably is. Faster, thinner, front & back-facing cameras, but still not pulling me into the fold. I just didn't see the point of investing that amount of coin into something that bulky. Wouldn't a netbook be more versatile? Then one thing made the difference for me and four others have made it a permanent luxury. Here they are.

1. Play that funky music, white boy!

Garage Band for iPad! Hoo-ray! That broke the ice for me. That was the justification i needed to get onboard. What a fabulous little piece of screwin' around software. Being a pianist and keyboard player it just feels right. Laying down some simple guitar strumming and picking for backing tracks is a breeze, and for quick and dirty jamming in a friend's kitchen I can get my fat fingers around the on-screen, touch keyboard or plug in my 49-key midi keyboard via the USB adapter and use Garage Band as a sample generator. Love it. But what the hell else am I going to do with this sexy hunk of black plastic and glass?

2. Google integration

I once had a dot.mac account. Used it for a little picture sharing with family. Never used the email except as login to apple.com and Apple Store. These days, the structured part of my life resides within the realms of Google. Email over three accounts, shared calendars, contacts, maps, places, blog... all synced and managed across all of my devices and platforms including Android phones, iPhones, iMacs, iPad, MacBook and PC. They're all covered. No messing around with an over-the-hill iTunes paradigm of having to tether myself every time I want to sync. Google has even made a very nice iPad interface out of their services. Google's web mail on iPad blows away Apple's own client and even a Mail update in the new iOS will be hard pressed to compete. I mean why can't I select several items to delete simultaneously in Mail? Now I know Apple has announced iCloud (coming sometime this autumn) but that's just an Apple cloud, for iDevices. Really not a cloud that shares the heavens with the rest of world so I don't see myself getting onboard, and Google+ has just made me even happier.

3. Flip for joy!

Flipboard. They just got it so right. How can you say enough about this app. This is what everything should be like on an iPad. All of your feeds aggregated into one slick, effective, easy to use app that's as sticky as molasses on flypaper. They are doing such a great job of signing up partners that I have my Linkedin feeds, Facebook and about every news outlet I ever wanted, as well as my Flickr feeds. It's like browsing thru the pages of a fine coffee table book or magazine, depending on the content. It has single-handedly extended my breakfast by about 20 minutes and makes the train ride into town a lot quicker. If you don't have it on your iPad, get it.

4. The child inside me (and behind me)

This is more a nod to the success of iTunes App Store than children's apps as such, but the advantage to a parent with small children is undeniable. So much for them to explore, color, listen and learn from that you just can't deny it a place in the living room or back seat of your car. I wonder what the price difference is between two 16GB wifi only iPads vs. an in-car entertainment system. Hmmm... Needless to say, all kids love their parents iPads as much as I loved Dr. Seus's "Cat In The Hat" when I was growing up.

5. Slim, sexy, and solidly built

I've played with other tablets. I was very close to putting down money on the first Galaxy Tab when it came out but didn't. I just spent time with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and while it is slimmer and lighter than the iPad, it just didn't feel as luxurious and fine. The only product that comes close to sexy and solid is the Motorola Xoom, but who are we kidding? Motorola, like Nokia, has become a product for another generation. So while there are still shortcomings to the iPad and Apple's ecosystem I have indeed learned to love my iPad. Did I sell out and join the lemming masses that blindly buy into the "Apple Magic"? Nahh... it was a birthday present. Thanks!

Help! I've been Shatnered!

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Sometimes you stumble across a site that is just so damn funny you wish they would make an ~~ass~~ app out of it. "Damn You Auto Correct" is just such a site. People send in screen dumps of messaging threads gone wrong, thanks to auto correction, that are just too funny for words. Seriously! I nearly snorted coffee thru my nose this morning. Some of them are painfully funny, like this poor fellow explaining a rotten appendage to his contractor, or this lovesick person with an unusual fetish Check it out! (warning: adult language)

How does one recover from a Shatnered weekend?

Spotify and Napster. Kissing cousins?

noreply@blogger.com (david thompson) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:20:00 +0000

Wow! Big Green Spotify has launched in the USA. Hallelujah! (Jeff Buckley Spotify link attached) All in all the reviews have been very good for the gang in Sweden. Tweets from Brit-Brit, Ashton, and Mark Zuckerberg changing his FB status to mention Spotify. Even Sean Parker calls it "The realisation of my Napster dream". And that brings me to the point of my post today - the one key piece that all of the tech bloggers out there seem to miss when doing their comparisons of Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody and others - it's shared DNA with Napster. That's right. Call it a distant cousin or a half-sister but Spotify and Napster Classic (not the New Roxio/Best Buy Napster) have more in common than Spotify and any other similar music service.

Nearly every review I have seen listing the pluses and minuses of various services gives Spotify a minus because it is a dedicated app and not a web app accessible from a browser anywhere. At the same time I did see one review which actually mentioned the speed of Spotify's streaming response (200 milliseconds). That post also failed to explain the fundementals behind Spotify's technology and therein its coupling to Sean Parker's Napster dream. Here it is.
Spotify is a peer-to-peer client. It's a bit torrent client, cloud-sourcing its media from every Spotify user that is online. This is where they pick up their speed on streaming starts and track changes. Every client, including mobile apps, have a cache which can be adjusted in your preferences. This stores a huge portion of your most played items and if you're a generous Spotify user and have lots of disk space you can up this significantly on your desktop machine.

So what happens is that when you click to hear that new Katy Perry tune, Spotify sources it from all of the other peers out there that have bits of that song cached and BINGO, 200 milliseconds later it starts playing. This is great for the vast majority of popular music but I'm not sure how much performance improvement it gives the long tail. Still, even those deep Root Boy Slim tracks kick off in a heartbeat.

So there you have it. That's why Spotify is an app and not a browser-based service. That's why Spotify is closer to Sean Parker's original Napster legacy than other services. That's why Spotify is inovative. That's why Apple is trying patent this concept... what? Yeah. Even Apple recently filed for a new patent to speed up streaming music by caching portions of the file to your local drive. Good luck with that, Steve.